Sarpanch husband’s dark exploits came to light, villagers worried

Gariaband. In Barabahali Panchayat of Devbhog, once again the ward residents, who were neglected by the Panchayat schemes, got the street cleaned and disinfected on Monday with the help of labor and donation money. Panch Bhanumati Manjhi of Ward 5 said that it becomes difficult to walk in the street during rainy days. Hundreds of people from about 100 families of the village come and go from this locality. There was a demand from the residents of the locality for two years, but the Panchayat did not pay attention. The leaders of the locality, Shobharam Manjhi, Karan Singh Pathar, Jayalal Pathar, Kirtan Pooji, Laxman Manjhi, Lingaraj Pathar, Jugeshwar Yadav, through mutual discussion in the locality, decided to clean and irrigate the street by donating labor and donations.
There was a festival of Nuakhai ahead, hence the work started on Monday and was finished on Tuesday. The mud was cleaned from the first fire lane of about 250 meter street. Then he made it passable by adding mudroom. In this work, one member from every house of the locality donated labour. It cost about Rs 35 thousand. Which was paid for through donations. In this matter, Panchayat Secretary Komarra said that there is a provision for cleanliness in the development fund of the Panchayat. But there is no provision for soiling. No demand was made hence the work was not included in the action plan. In this matter, District CEO Prateek Pradhan said that these works have to be done on priority under the rural development item. But even after this we will investigate why and how it could not be done.
The street of Ward number 5 which has been cleaned and repaired today by donating labor, Rs 87 thousand has been paid to Punit Sinha, husband of the then Sarpanch Sumitra Sinha, in the name of repair and removal of dirt of that street. The payment check has the signature of the same Panchayat Secretary who says that mooring is against the provisions. The villagers said that only fraud has been done in the name of street cleaning, repair and maintenance. Even a month and a half ago, the streets of Podaguria Para and Jora Bandiyapara of the same panchayat were repaired by the villagers by donating labour. Just a month ago, the SDM had dismissed the Sarpanch of this Panchayat, Sumitra. This action was taken on the charge of obliging other relatives including son, husband, father-in-law. After the dismissal of the Sarpanch, the charge of the Sarpanch has been duly handed over to his real sister-in-law Ritu Sinha. Devrani was the panch of ward number 4, she has been given the charge on the support of the panchos.